Arab Integration

Pan-Arab Conceptions of Arab Integration

Arab integration was first employed within the discourse of Arab nationalism and parallel to the evolution of the Arab state system in the aftermath of World War II. The Arab nationalist (or Pan-Arab) ideology posited that the multitude of Arab states represents a coherent historical and political national community and that this nation should be realized within a unified Arab state. Following from that, Arab nationalists argued that the Arab nation is a natural unit that was artificially divided into unsustainable entities and that political and economic development can only be achieved through the rapprochement, cooperation, and, ultimately, the unification of these states. The League of Arab States was founded in 1945 as a tool for the realization of Arab integration and unity, even though in practice it was paralyzed by political divisions and institutional deficiencies. Furthermore, from the 1950s through the 1970s, several attempts were made to unify two or more Arab countries, most of which were discontinued. The most famous of these endeavors was the formation of the United Arab Republic, a political union between Egypt and Syria that lasted from 1958 to 1963. Other attempted unifications occurred between Libya and Egypt, Egypt and Sudan, and Jordan and Iraq.

In the late 1960s, the idea of Arab unity through political fusion was mostly abandoned as an immediate goal and new forms of Arab regional integration were initiated. This included the establishment of institutions promoting inter-Arab trade, cultural exchange, common industrial projects, common educational policies, and military cooperation. In addition, Arab states signed many bilateral agreements and formed [Page 25]subregional organizations to facilitate trade and political cooperation. The most notable of these organizations were the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab Common Market, and the Arab Organization for Industrialization.

The idea behind these projects was to further economic and political integration within the system of existing Arab states in the hope of achieving greater political weight on the world scene and accomplishing economic objectives (that individual Arab states might not be able to realize). The rhetoric of pan-Arabism was not completely divorced from such attempts, and many of these institutions had the stated goal of achieving higher degrees of rapprochement and complementarity between different Arab states, which would eventually pave the way for Arab unity.

This latter notion of Arab integration differed from the traditional Arab nationalist model in several respects. First, it recognized the Arab state system and accorded a greater importance to the Arab states in the process of Arab integration, whereas the orthodox pan-Arab discourse viewed these entities as illegitimate colonial constructs and an obstacle to Arab rapprochement. Second, this notion implied a belief in an incremental route to Arab integration based on institutional cooperation that was greatly influenced by the experience of the European Community and the building of a common European market. Conversely, the orthodox nationalist view favored a more direct approach to Arab unity inspired by European cases of national unification in the late nineteenth century (especially those of Germany and Italy). Finally, the more recent notion of Arab integration believed in cooperation being designed and effectuated on the level of state bureaucracies and diplomatic agreements, whereas the Arab nationalist perspective believed in the promotion of Arab integration through mass movements and party politics.

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